22-11-2012, 01:09 PM
When I purchased this radio it was a bit tatty, and the only noise it made was a 50 Htz mains hum,
so all stripped down, and all waxies changed, run up through my lamp limiter again, still humming, but would now just about receive a couple of stations, when a long piece of wire was inserted into the second (sensitive) aerial socket,
At least the Westector was OK,
So next Job was to replace the three mains smoothing elecrolytics, rated 8uf, they were replaced with three 10uf of suitable rating.
Powered up again, and the lamp limiter went quite bright, on rechecking my work, I had replaced on of the electolytics the wrong way round, this was quickly remedied, and the radio sprang into life. only needing a slight adjustment to the aerial coils to peak to maximum reception.
So onto the cabinet.
The cabinet and dial was showing it's age, so decided on a complete strip-down to the bare cabinet, this was then stripped of all old varnish, the sanded down, with progressively finer grade sandpaper, the final sand being fine grade wire wool and white spirit, the two horizontal pieces on each side of the front were then masked off, and sprayed, I know this is not original, but i fancied brightening it up a bit, ( I can here the purists shrieking in horror) and it seems to work quite well, the same treatment was also given to the wooden feet blocks, the case was then all reassembled, and treated to a few coats of brushed marine varnish, as it matched the original finish better than spraying it with lacquer I felt. the speaker cloth was scavenged from an alba 461 I had stored in the loft, it is of similar period.
So now for the dial.
Had a long hard think about various options on this, from a copy on photo paper or waterslide transfer, but decided to try a different approach.
So ordered a set of transfers from Letraset, and while I was waiting for them to arrive, set about sanding and spraying the dial.
three days later, the transfers arrived, so set to on applying them.
This was not as easy as I thought it would be, as if not careful, other transfers would apply themselves to the dial if I leaned on another part of the sheet that was in contact with the dial, and would need careful removal by scraping gently with a fingernail, It took me about two hours to do all the transfers, and I was glad to finish.
So all assembled it is now ready for some serious use. It maker as stamped on the chassis is U6, so I believe it is a G.E.C.
The only problems that this type of radio suffers from, are the usual capacitor problems, brittle wiring that needs replacing, and sometimes the Westector is faulty, this can be replaced by a OA90/91/81 germanium diode.
I have attached the modifications between the different makes of this receiver.
so all stripped down, and all waxies changed, run up through my lamp limiter again, still humming, but would now just about receive a couple of stations, when a long piece of wire was inserted into the second (sensitive) aerial socket,
At least the Westector was OK,
So next Job was to replace the three mains smoothing elecrolytics, rated 8uf, they were replaced with three 10uf of suitable rating.
Powered up again, and the lamp limiter went quite bright, on rechecking my work, I had replaced on of the electolytics the wrong way round, this was quickly remedied, and the radio sprang into life. only needing a slight adjustment to the aerial coils to peak to maximum reception.
So onto the cabinet.
The cabinet and dial was showing it's age, so decided on a complete strip-down to the bare cabinet, this was then stripped of all old varnish, the sanded down, with progressively finer grade sandpaper, the final sand being fine grade wire wool and white spirit, the two horizontal pieces on each side of the front were then masked off, and sprayed, I know this is not original, but i fancied brightening it up a bit, ( I can here the purists shrieking in horror) and it seems to work quite well, the same treatment was also given to the wooden feet blocks, the case was then all reassembled, and treated to a few coats of brushed marine varnish, as it matched the original finish better than spraying it with lacquer I felt. the speaker cloth was scavenged from an alba 461 I had stored in the loft, it is of similar period.
So now for the dial.
Had a long hard think about various options on this, from a copy on photo paper or waterslide transfer, but decided to try a different approach.
So ordered a set of transfers from Letraset, and while I was waiting for them to arrive, set about sanding and spraying the dial.
three days later, the transfers arrived, so set to on applying them.
This was not as easy as I thought it would be, as if not careful, other transfers would apply themselves to the dial if I leaned on another part of the sheet that was in contact with the dial, and would need careful removal by scraping gently with a fingernail, It took me about two hours to do all the transfers, and I was glad to finish.
So all assembled it is now ready for some serious use. It maker as stamped on the chassis is U6, so I believe it is a G.E.C.
The only problems that this type of radio suffers from, are the usual capacitor problems, brittle wiring that needs replacing, and sometimes the Westector is faulty, this can be replaced by a OA90/91/81 germanium diode.
I have attached the modifications between the different makes of this receiver.
